Bahamas complains to US over DEA operations carried out without its consent
The government says agents ran drug operations in the country without its knowledge, drawing a sharp rebuke from US Ambassador Herschel Walker.
NASSAU, Bahamas. The government of The Bahamas has formally complained to the United States about Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents operating in the country without local authorisation.
The complaint, sent to the Justice Department, including acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Skaret, reflects concern within Prime Minister Phillip Davis's administration that DEA agents overstepped their legal bounds by acting outside the formal treaties in place.
"This lack of consent and the subsequent public fallout has caused public disquiet within The Bahamas and undermine the confidence in the existing and agreed programs on anti-narcotics activity," the letter said.
The government asked for the matters to be investigated and for continued cooperation "through agreed and consensual actions by both governments and their agents within The Bahamas".
Court cases cited
The foreign ministry said that in the cases of United States vs. Jonathan Eric Gardiner and United States vs. Elvis Nathaniel Curtis et al, "there are sworn and recorded documents that indicate that drug operations were executed in The Bahamas with Bahamian citizens subsequently charged by DEA agents in the courts of the United States without the knowledge or consent of the government of The Bahamas".
The issue has made headlines in newspapers and on television, in part because several mid to high-ranking Bahamian police officers have been cited for suspicious links to the drug trade or indicted in the US for international drug trafficking. Some remain on trial in the US.
Drug trafficking has troubled successive governments, as hundreds of lightly policed islands and cays are used to move drugs and guns between The Bahamas and the US mainland. Bimini lies just 50 miles from the US coast.
Ambassador hits back
The complaint drew a sharp rebuke from US Ambassador Herschel Walker, the former NFL star appointed by the Trump administration in the past year, the first ambassador-level appointment there in more than a decade.
"Bahamian officials are concerned that the United States helped to arrest a known drug trafficker?" Walker told the Tribune newspaper, urging officials to "do the hard work" of combating corruption.
"I am here to work together and help protect both our nations from the scourge of narcotics trafficking," he said.
